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Heinous crimes became Delhi's crux, police had it tough

Sumit Kumar Singh NEW DELHI:Dec 31,2012 DH News Service

Gang rapes, murders shocked residents

From the horrendous situation of two-year-old Falak to the horrific and brutal gang rape and assault of a 23-year-old physiotherapist, the capital witnessed the rarest of rare cases in 2012. Crimes were committed not only against civillians but police officers also became victims.

The year started with the biggest ever seizure of Indian fake currency worth Rs 2.24 crores with the arrest of two people on January 5.

Barely 12 days later, a 53-year-old Delhi Police constable was beaten to death by a catering in-charge when he objected to articles being taken through an unauthorised passageway at a railway station.

But battered baby Falak, who was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Trauma Centre on January 18, left the whole nation is shock.

She later succumbed to injuries after more than two months but her tale revealed the problems of lower middle class families. While police have arrested 10 people in the case, they had also rescued a 16-year-old girl who was raped and then pushed to human trafficking by the perpetrators.

February was tough for law enforcers. First there was the alleged sexual abuse of children at central Delhi’s Arya Orphanage with a suspicion that a sex racket thrived at the premises. Then there was a terror attack on an Israeli diplomat’s car near the prime minister’s residence on February 13.

Tal Yehoshua, 42, wife of Israel defence attache was wounded in the attack. Police, however, after a month arrested journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi of conspiring with foreign elements and others for the terror strike.

After that the city witnessed a few gang rape incidents and murders, on June 30, Neeraj Kumar took charge from B K Gupta as the Delhi Police Commissioner and claimed the city would be a better place for women and would be tough on terroists.

Police later arrested five Indian Mujhaideen terrorists for carrying out serial bomb blasts in Pune on Auguist 1. Sayed Maqbool, Asad Khan, 33, Imran Khan, 31, Sayed Feroz alias Hamza, 38, and Landge Irfan Mustafa, 30, were arrested from various states and three from Delhi.

Meanwhile few incidents of shooting astonishied Delhiites. A 14-year-old boy killed three women in Jahangirpuri over a loan of Rs 50.

The incident came as a rude shock to police, lawmakers and residents as well. In another case of shooting two friends killed five people, including a girl who they were infatuated with and finally shot themselves.

But rioting at Mayur Vihar Phase-III on September 2 over a drunken man challenged the law and order situation. Police used tear gas shells and forced the crowd to disperse, in which a man was killed and another injured.

The suicide of former air hostess Geetika Sharma was another shocker. She in her suicide note had blamed a former minister for the extreme step. After a cat and mouse chase for 14 days between Gopal Kanda and the police, he finally surrendered at a police station in Delhi.

The arrest of con couple — Ullas Prabhakar Khaire and his wife Raksha Urs — for duping several investors of around Rs 500 crore brought accolades to law enforces. But the gun fight between liquor baron Ponty Chadha and brother Hardeep Chadha in south Delhi in which both were killed, left them clueless for a bit.

But the repulsion of people in the gang rape and assault of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, spread like wildfire in the whole country. Angered citizens rose up to protest for justice and strict punishment agianst rapists. The victim died after 13 days of suffering and multiple organ failure.

People were enraged over the weak existing law, which has allowed several accused to get acquitted in sexual assault cases. Over 650 rape cases have been reported in Delhi this year so far.